‘Police wants to defame Hindutva activists’

Aug 10, 2018

‘Many BJP MLAs and ministers tell us the police does not listen to them.’

IMAGE: The scene of the 2006 blast in Malegaon.

On the night of August 9, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad arrested Vaibhav Raut, a member of a Hindu outfit and seized explosives from his residence at Nallasopara in Palghar district, a town close to Mumbai.

The ATS sleuths raided Raut’s home and shop where they discovered the explosives, including crude bombs.

In a statement, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti termed Raut’s arrest as ‘Malegaon part II’ and described it as the continuing harassment of activists of Hindu organisations to implicate them in false cases.

“This is a conspiracy on the same lines of Malegaon,” the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti’s Sunil Ghanvat tells Rediff.com‘s Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

Why is the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti terming the Nallasopara arrest and recovery of explosives as ‘Malegaon part II’?

We have experienced this in the past too.

Sadhvi Pragya was kept in jail for eight years and six months and later acquitted as she was found to be innocent.

Colonel Purohit too is out on bail.

In the case of Sudhakar Chaturvedi, the police kept RDX at his home.

Therefore, we do not believe this news too.

It is a ploy to blame Hindutva activists.

The police want to defame them.

This is the conspiracy on the same lines of Malegaon.

All the accused were innocent, still they spent nine years in jail.

Therefore, we issued a statement saying Vaibhav Raut’s arrest is Malegaon part II.

How can you come to this conclusion even before an investigation has begun?

We said the same thing during Malegaon too.

Sadhvi Pragya was a sadhvi, but you see what happened to her later on.

They arrested five Sanathan Sanstha activists in that (case).

The police said these Sanatan activists were involved in the blasts.

But all of them were acquitted.

Therefore, we do not believe the Vaibhav Raut arrest story.

Whatever happens will happen in court.

Let them prove it in court.

Will Raut’s arrest revive the debate over Hindu terror, this time under a BJP government?

Many BJP MLAs and ministers tell us the police does not listen to them.

How can you say this?

Take the example of the arrests in Pune of Bank of Maharashtra top officials.

Only Maharashtrians were arrested. Even Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis did not know about this.

The police does whatever it wants, then the blame comes on the government.

Many times the police does things which they want to do on their own. Whatever happens in this case will be proved in court.

Don’t you think Raut’s arrest will re-ignite the debate on Hindu terror?

Vaibhav Raut was a good gau rakshak.

He worked in this field very sincerely.

I feel if the police wants to prevent him from doing his work, they can go to any extent.

Just because this incident has happened, you cannot say that this is Hindu terrorism.

Do you think his arrest is linked to Gauri Lankesh’s murder?

Right now we are only talking about Vaibhav’s case.

Kindly note: The photograph has only been published for representational purposes.